{"id":226388,"date":"2025-06-30T10:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T10:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/226388\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T10:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T10:31:09","slug":"fuel-margins-remain-high-despite-lower-prices-at-the-pump-watchdog-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/226388\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuel margins remain high despite lower prices at the pump, watchdog finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sc-1uza6dc-1 huxBsk\">Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong>Read more<\/p>\n<p>Drivers are still being hit with high fuel margins despite lower prices at the pump, the competition watchdog has said.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/competition-and-markets-authority\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Competition and Markets Authority<\/a> (CMA) said retailers\u2019 margins \u2013 the difference between what they pay for fuel and what they sell it at \u2013 remained high compared to historic levels.<\/p>\n<p>Fuel prices across the UK fell for both petrol and diesel over the three months to the end of May by 7.6 pence per litre (ppl) and 8.4 ppl respectively.<\/p>\n<p>But the CMA found that fuel margins were similar to the high levels seen during its road fuel market study \u2013 a review of the market to understand the factors influencing fuel prices undertaken in 2023 \u2013 which suggested overall competition in the UK\u2019s road fuel retail market remained \u201cweak\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Supermarket fuel margins fell from 8.9% in December 2024 to 7.9% in February 2025, before rising to 8.3% in March 2025, the regulator found.<\/p>\n<p>Non-supermarket fuel margins fell from 9.9% in December 2024 to 8.9% in January 2025, before rising to 10.4% in March 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The CMA also looked at the retail spread \u2013 the average price that drivers pay at the pump compared to the benchmarked price that retailers buy fuel at \u2013 across the UK from March 2025 to May 2025.<\/p>\n<p>It found that petrol retail spreads averaged 15.4 ppl, which was 1.5 ppl higher than the previous four-month period \u2013 and still more than double the average of 6.5 ppl over 2015 to 2019.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/diesel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Diesel<\/a> retail spreads averaged 18.8 ppl, which was 4.6 ppl higher than the previous four-month period and more than double the average of 8.6 ppl in 2015 to 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Dan Turnbull, senior director of markets at the CMA, said: \u201cWhile there is uncertainty over how global events will impact the price of oil, our report shows fuel margins remain high compared to historic levels despite lower prices at the pump in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/government\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Government<\/a> committed to launching a \u2018fuel finder\u2019 scheme following our recommendation to help drivers compare real-time prices and boost competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce launched, it will make it easier than ever to shop around and find the best deals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/rac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RAC<\/a> head of policy Simon Williams said: \u201cGiven fuel is a major expense for households, and with eight in 10 drivers dependent on their cars, it\u2019s disappointing to see they\u2019ve paid over the odds yet again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to hope the launch of the Government-backed Fuel Finder scheme, due at the end of the year, will stimulate competition and finally lead to fairer pump prices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>AA president Edmund King said: \u201cOnce again, the CMA has exposed boosted margins and profits from petrol and diesel. Road fuel is a critical part of a consumer and family budgets. Increased fuel costs have a major influence on inflation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the hope is that pump price reporting, which becomes mandatory at the start of the next year, might bring about more competition, what is happening now is not only bad news for drivers and businesses but also siphoning off potential consumer spending for the likes of tourism and others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr King added: \u201cThe clear and present danger now is the cost of petrol and diesel along holiday routes. Some of the prices are outrageous and we can only hope that drivers take maximum advantage of the price transparency provided by the CMA\u2019s voluntary reporting scheme to locate the competitive forecourts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3091],"tags":[51,2441,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-226388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-markets","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114771858851357001","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}